HARRISONBURG — Entering Saturday’s second-round FCS Playoff game, James Madison coach Mike Houston called the special teams matchup between the Dukes and New Hampshire “critical.”

In the lopsided 55-22 Madison win, Houston’s squad won the battle of special teams in a landslide, highlighted by senior Brandon Ravenel’s 86-yard kickoff return touchdown in the third quarter.

JMU also got a 40-yard punt return from senior Rashard Davis and a fumble recovery from junior long snapper Brett Siegel on a muffed punt by New Hampshire returner Casey DeAndrade. The Dukes executed a fake field goal too.

“It was huge,” Houston said. “You’re talking about setting up a touchdown, scoring a touchdown and giving our offense a short field for another touchdown. If we hadn’t had the fumble after the fake field goal, special teams would’ve setup another touchdown.”

New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell said Ravenel’s touchdown return killed any chance of a comeback after Wildcats running back Dalton Crossan scored a touchdown to open the second half.

“We get beat in the special teams in a bunch of different scenarios,” McDonnell said. “Field position was tough. We couldn’t return kicks. We’d bring it within two scores and then they hit us with the long touchdown on the kickoff return.”

Ravenel said the kick return team made a conscious effort to recapture that momentum.

“When we got in the huddle, we said we had a chance to take the momentum back,” Ravenel said. “We hadn’t taken one back all year and we were all like, ‘why not now?’”

UNH QB Change No Problem For JMU D

Throughout week leading into the second-round game, the JMU defense prepared to face both New Hampshire quarterbacks Adam Riese and Trevor Knight.

Houston had said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that he thought Riese would get the nod over Knight, but when the Wildcats took the field for the first time, Knight trotted out as the starter.

“We didn’t care too much about who was playing,” JMU defensive end Andrew Ankrah said. “We found out that Knight was starting before we went out to play, but it didn’t matter too much.”

Houston said JMU was ready either way.

Knight started and completed only 8-of-21 throws before Riese relieved him in the second half. Riese completed 8-of-14 throws and threw an interception.

“We looked closely at what they do and they don’t do a whole lot different no matter which quarterback is in there,” Houston said. “Certainly Riese throws a little better and Knight runs a little better. We felt like we could prepare for both with basically the same package. Now we had a few things like a spy package for Knight and some wrinkles for Riese, but our base plan was the same.”

UNH Coach Says JMU Compares To Past Champs

New Hampshire and McDonnell hold the nation’s longest consecutive playoff appearance streak, reaching the FCS postseason in each of the last 13 years.

He’s faced and lost to a few teams that have gone onto win or reach the national championship game. In 2013, New Hampshire was knocked out in semifinals by eventual champ North Dakota State.

McDonnell said this JMU team has some of the same attributes that some of his toughest opponents in past have had.

“Yeah,” he said. “And I think it starts on the defensive side of the football. They’ve gotten better since the middle of the season. They’re playing very aggressively and doing a great job.

“And we’ve played a really good Montana team. We’ve played North Dakota State and Illinois State, but I don’t know if we’ve played an offense as explosive as those guys [JMU] with everything they’ve got.”

Fourth-seeded JMU will host Sam Houston State Friday night in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs at Bridgeforth Stadium.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.